March 2009 Archives

As a parent of a little girl, I just can't get the image of little Francesca Bimpson out of my head.
She was the toodler from Everton who died when someone poured petrol through her letterbox and set her home ablaze.
She tried to hide from the flames beneath her blankets. I could weep every time I think of that.
Her killer is out there, yet to be caught.
Last week in the Echo we ran a story about her family being left without possessions due to the blaze. The response from Echo readers was extraordinary - household goods flooded in from all quarters. It was touching, yet what we've learned to expect.
What we need now if for someone to provide the vital information that catches Francesca's killer.
It's up to the Echo to ensure we keep that little girl and her horrible fate firmly at the front of people's consciences.

CHILDREN go through phases. These phases may turn into obsessions. Hopefully they will be harmless little obsessions. In my son's case it was Power Rangers, which was ok, and then onto WWF Wrestling which was mind-numbing.
Ok - there's a basically violent undertone running through his obsessions but it doesn't seem to have manifested itself in anything sinister. He's a nice lad and at 16 his obsessions are football, film and the normal things that teenage boys consider..
So now at my advanced stage of life we have Morgan, aged 6. For months it's been BLOODY SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. Night and day on a succession of satellite TV channels. Interminable. Intolerable.
Then she changed. Spongebob was no longer her first love. 'Thanks God,' I rejoiced.
But she has found a new and far more worrying compulsion....
The works of VAL DOONICAN.
Somehow, somewhere, she found a YouTube version of Paddy McGinty's Goat. She played it a thousand times in succession and learnt all the words. She gravitated to Delaney's Donkey and I hear the wretched beast hee-hawing in my sleep.
My friend Bob is from Dublin. I asked him if the Irish nation laughed behind their hands at us all when Doonican wondered over here in the 70s, to take over primetime British TV with his woeful cardigans and lilting bonhomie.
'Yes.' He said. 'We did.'
Bob then went on to tell me about a 3-track 'EP' he bought for his mum. It featured, the goat, the donkey, and a hitherto unheard-of-by-me track called 'The Jarvey was a Leprechaun'.
I rushed home to tell Morgan the news. 'There is more!' I confided. 'We can play Jarvey instead of the other two!'
We search the web and found many references to the song but no renditions - not on I-Tunes, not on YouTube, not anywhere. Someone help me.
I am in Doonican hell.

My beloved Newcastle United are going to be relegated. I am now convinced of this. I see no way out, unless they can defeat either Chelsea or Arsenal.
It will be hard to take, but I will cope.
I cannot help though, but be horribly jealous of my colleagues here in our Liverpool newsroom. They ooh and ahh over Liverpool and Everton, thrilling at Reds' defeat of Madrid and subsequent triumph over Manchester United...or Blues march towards the FA Cup final and gallant charge for a Champions League slot.
Do these people know how lucky they are? How lucky they are to support successful teams, even to support teams that are safe from the drop?
Do Reds fans even know the true agony of football, such is their team's glorious tradition?
I love Reds and Blues. I have been here for 15 years and Merseyside has given my family a marvellous life. Unless they are playing Newcastle I want Reds and Blues to win every game they play. It's good for business and I've grown very fond of them besides. Oh Newcastle. 40 years since our last trophy of any significance. And now the unthinkable,Someone, somewhere, give me hope,

Had it all planned out. Played golf on Sunday morning with a couple of friends and was heading home after quick drink in Bromborough Golf Club's pleasant bar. Get home, I thought, pleasantly tired after first game in 3 months, bite of lunch, couple of glasses of wine, fall asleep in front of the football. After all, it had been a long, hard week in the office as we get used to our new editorial set-up. Long days, difficult meetings.
Through front door: Morgan (aged 6) meets me at a run. 'Dad!' 'At last you're home! You promised we could walk up Thurstaston Hill today.'
I had.
So we did.
That night I was leg-weary but happy. It's easy to forget you're a dad first and an editor second.
I am having lunch with Ed Balls at our London offices at the end of this month. Any questions you'd particularly like me to ask the Secretary of State for Children and Families?

Hosted most pleasant dinner at my home to mark the retirement of Joe Riley and Phil Key, long-serving and much loved arts editors of the Echo and Liverpool Daily Post respectively.

Made a short speech (can't help myself) at which I commented on their very different styles.

Joe was always more combative as a reviewer - the punters are paying and they desreve the warts-and-all assessment of a production.

Phil, equally knowledgeable, was kinder. He sought to see some good in everything he watched.

I will miss both of them massively.

We had a fantastic turn-out of the biggest and best players on the Liverpool Arts scene. Which shows just how highly Joe and Phil are thought of.

Good luck to their successors, Catherine Jones and Laura Davis. They have big shoes to step into.

Went to the Albert Dock with Lynne and my six-year-old daughter, Morgan. We were walking along, minding our own business, when an Asian family turned the corner and walked towards us.

One of them was wearing a Patka/turban. Clearly a Sikh. You know the awful moment when your kid's going to say something, don't you? Like when you're standing next to a very fat person. You know it's coming but you're powerless to stop it.

'Oh look' said Morgan, pointing. (Oh, no I thought, cowering).

'It's a Genie!'

Thankfully, the guy started laughing. So we could too.

Been getting some flak over two 'World Exclusives' we championed on our front page last Friday.
Deserved some of it certainly.
This is what happened. There were two big stories on the go and we'd stolen a march on both of them.One was Liverpool FC parting company with Rick Parry and the other was an 'announcement' about jailed Reds fan, Michael Shields.
The Parry story was a belter. The whole world was after it but our Reds correspondent Tony Barrett got it first and it was on our website before the chasing pack had rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. Reds are global news. It was, in my opinion, a genuine world exclusive. (Bit self-indulgent, I know, but we don't come into this business to finish second)..
As that story was breaking we got a solid tip-off that there was a big development in the Michael Shields case. We asked how big. And were told 'very signficant'.
By this time we had minutes until press deadline.
We took a punt and set up a front page that had SHIELDS FREED, next to PARRY TO GO. We put world exclusive on both stories.
Of course, we couldn't print until we had confirmation on the Shields line. We waited, and waited, ...then it broke. No release, rather, the news that Merseyside Police had been called into the inquiry.
Good story, but not the scale we had imagined.
By this time the press crew were screaming at us and the vans were queuing up outside.
We lashed in the correct story but in our pressurised haste, forgot to remove the World Exclusive tag from the original lay-out.
Simple as that. People working under pressure sometimes make mistakes in good faith. My fault.
That night Bernard Hogan-Howe, Merseyside Chief Constable, gently poked fun at me over the Shields 'World Exclusive'. He had a laugh when I told him the circumstances.
But yeah, I know. We were getting a bit full of ourselves anyway.
Message received and understood.

Squirmed uneasily in my seat at a Town Hall dinner on Friday night.

It was ANOTHER farewell-to-08-haven't-we-all-done-well nights. And we have.

There was a lovely meal, interesting people, the magnificent surroundings of Liverpool Town Hall, and four short speeches. So far so good.

One of the speeches was made by Phil Redmond, Culure Deputy Chair. He told us we'd all done well but reminded us that Liverpool was still a work in progress.
He pointed out that the a community outreach play had been curtailed in its programme seven shows short because of lack of funding....and that the cost of that night's dinner would have be enough for it to continue.
I didn't have that last glass of Chardonnay.

At the echo Arena on Saturday night. An Echo reader, Dave Traynor, had bid successfully at auction for use of our private box to see Cirque De Soleil and I went along to host.

Dave is director of a company called 2ergo who are doing really well in the field of mobiile communications. He and his wife Barabara were great fun - and so were his guests.

We had a few drinks and a few laughs, enjoyed the show. Then I waved them goodbye as they set off into town heading for Herbert's new champagne bar, Champu.

Long week and I'd run out of steam.